After losing two games out of three against the last place Tampa Bay Rays from June 27-29, the Boston Red Sox sure wouldn't let the Rays get by them once again. After taking last night's game, the Red Sox were victorious yet again on Saturday, taking the second game by a final score of 4-1.
With the win, Rick Porcello improved to 11-2, as well as an impeccable 8-0 at Fenway Park this season. Matt Moore, who dominated the Red Sox on June 29th, picked up his sixth loss of the season. The Red Sox improved to 48-38 on the year and are now tied with the Toronto Blue Jays for second place in the AL East. Tampa Bay continues to struggle and are now 34-53 with just one more game until the All-Star break.
Porcello tosses a gem
Pitching at Fenway Park has been a huge strength for Rick Porcello this season. Entering the game, the right-hander was 7-0, along with a 3.60 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, and 44 strikeouts in 50 innings pitched.
However, to start out this game, it did not look too good. Brad Miller, the second hitter of the game, hit a towering home run off Porcello with one away. Miller has had a lot of success facing Porcello in his career, and the home run was his third in just nine at-bats against the 27-year-old.
But for Porcello, the rest of his outing was spectacular. He would not allow another run the rest of the way out and surrendered just five hits since the home run. The Rays would get doubles off the bats of Corey Dickerson and Nick Franklin to lead off both the second and fifth innings, but neither would come around to score.
Porcello finished seven innings, yielding just the one run, five hits, and zero walks while striking out five. It was a very solid start to close out the first half, and he will surely look to build off it the rest of the way out.
Strong fourth and fifth innings lift Red Sox
All season long, the Red Sox have been tasked to overcome rough pitching performances from the starters. However, today, they got some help. The offense certainly did not have their best performance, but it was strong enough to back Porcello's strong outing.
After failing to score a run in the first three innings, Dustin Pedroia walked to open up the fourth inning, and Xander Bogaerts followed in a crushing way. The first time all-star smacked a ball well over the left-field wall, and he knew it was gone as soon as it left the bat.
For Bogaerts, the impressive numbers carry on. It was his tenth home run of the season, after hitting just three all of last year. His average remains sky high at .331. After a stellar second season in 2015, many critics questioned his power, but he has answered in a big way in 2016. Bogaerts is something special in the making, and it is amazing to think he is still just 23-years-old.
The Red Sox would put together two more baserunners in the fourth, but Aaron Hill and Bryce Brentz both struck out to end the inning.
In the fifth inning, the Red Sox would pick right back where they left off. Sandy Leon, who silently has 23 hits in 52 at-bats this season, opened up the inning with a single. Mookie Betts followed, and sent a deep fly ball out to center field that should have been caught by Steven Souza, but he misplayed it, enabling Betts to reach second base. Possible all-star snub Dustin Pedroia followed, and he took a 3-1 pitch right up the middle, plating both runners.
Matt Moore had a decent start, but would not receive much run support. He finished six innings giving up seven hits, two earned runs (four total), three walks, and struck out four.
Red Sox close it out
In between the finish of Friday's game and the beginning of Saturday's game, the Red Sox made a couple of notable transactions. In the middle of the night, the Red Sox traded for relief pitcher Brad Ziegler from the Arizona Diamondbacks, who has served as the closer all season long for them. Ziegler, however, would not be added to the roster in time for Saturday's game.
Also, all-star Craig Kimbrel landed on the disabled list for the first time in his career. He is expected to miss 3-6 weeks. It was made obvious Kimbrel was injured when John Farrell elected to use Koji Uehara in a save situation on Friday night.
However, with the Red Sox protecting a three-run lead, Farrell turned to the same exact guys he used for the eighth and ninth innings in Friday's game. Matt Barnes was dominant yet again out of the bullpen and retired the Rays in order in the eighth.
Uehara got the nod once again in the ninth despite allowing a two-out home run in the previous game, and showed some scares yet again, but got the job done. The 41-year-old got a little lucky when umpire Cory Blaser made a questionable strike call on a full count to Souza for the second out, which would have brought the tying run to the plate had it been called a ball. Nonetheless, Uehara earned his fourth save of the season. It is unclear if he will keep his role as the closer while Kimbrel is hurt, but he continues to give John Farrell options.